Wearing a grey patterned suit and a blue open-collared shirt, not the green or orange prison jumpsuits which have been his public attire for almost three years, Allen Stanford faced his peers in a Houston courthouse at last.

She's joined the scouts, drunk Dom Perignon, and bagged a prince. As the Duchess of Cambridge turns 30 tomorrow, Matthew Bell, who follows suit in August, finds out how many must-do-before-you're-30 achievements Kate Middleton can tick off, and compares notes. How many have you done?

Fifa last night faced potentially damaging fresh accusations of corruption, this time involving Sepp Blatter, the world governing body's president. Jack Warner, once Blatter's right-hand man, said he was awarded lucrative World Cup TV rights for a nominal $1 after assisting Blatter's election as president.

Buckingham Palace has a terrible sense of timing. As the latest figures show unemployment reaching the highest level for 17 years, one group of plucky Brits can look forward to a spot of sun and fun in 2012, and, even better, they won't have to pay: the hard-up British taxpayer will. Lavish plans to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee were unveiled last week, just as the number of women out of work passed a million, just slightly more than the number of jobless young people. Given that Great Britain plc is staring at the very real possibility of a double-dip recession, and personal debt is higher than ever, you might think the bureaucrats who organise events for the Royal Family would have some sense of appropriateness, of adapting to straitened times. Sadly, not.

Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, has invited Caribbean football leaders to Zurich next month to help rebuild relations after the region's reputation was wrecked by a bribery scandal sparked by their own colleagues.

The US oilfields contractor Halliburton is suing BP in the US for "negligent misrepresentation, business disparagement and defamation" related to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster last year, which killed 11 people and caused the worst offshore spill in US history.